On 77th birthday, Pawar to lead anti-government march

Nagpur, Dec 11 (IANS) On his 77th birthday on Tuesday, veteran politician and NCP President Sharad Pawar will hit the streets, leading a 'Halla Bol' procession against Maharashtra's BJP-Shiv Sena government and address a rally jointly with Congress, a party official said.

The rally will be taken out in from Dhanwate National College grounds in Nagpur at noon in which the state Congress President Ashok Chavan, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and other top leaders from both the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party will take part, said NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik.

Pawar will address a rally with at least a dozen top leaders from both parties, besides leaders of other smaller and regional parties like the Samajwadi Party, the Peasants & Workers Party, the Republican Party of India, et al, before hitting the road in a procession, coinciding with the winter session of the Maharashtra Legislature which began here on Monday.

The rally is part of the ongoing agiation launched by the NCP on December 1, in different parts of the state intended to "condemn and awaken the sleeping state government on its various unfulfilled promisesa for the people of Maharashtra".

These include the Minimum Support Price for farmers for agriculture produce, the disbursement of the farm loans waiver package announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in June, and other issues, said Malik.

Chavan said that it has become a habit for the state government to announce grandiose schemes and then fail to implement them, and it has failed miserably on all fronts and its popularity has plummeted.

"However, now the entire opposition is united in exposing the weak government and our combined rally-cum-march tomorrow will be a success," he said.

The organisers expect over 200,000 people to turn up for the 'Halla Bol' rally, which the state government has dismissed as "a publicity stunt."